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Steve Nicol
Personal information
Full name	Stephen Nicol
Date of birth	December 11, 1961 (age 45)
Place of birth	Irvine, Scotland
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	New England Revolution (Coach)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1979-81 1981-95 1995 1995-98 1998 1998-99 1999 1999 2000-01	Ayr United Liverpool Sheffield Wednesday Notts County West Brom Doncaster Rovers Boston Bulldogs New England Revolution Boston Bulldogs	70 (0) 342 (37) 32 (2) 49 (0) 9 (0) ?? (??) ?? (??) 0 (0) ?? (??)
National team
1981-84 1985-92	Scotland Under-21 Scotland	14 27 (0)
Teams managed
1995 1999 2000-01 2002-	Notts County New England Revolution (interim) Boston Bulldogs New England Revolution
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Stephen 'Steve' Nicol (born December 11, 1961 in Irvine, Scotland) was a Scottish footballer, a tough and talented utility player who played in the all-conquering Liverpool team of the 1980s. He is currently coach of New England Revolution in MLS.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 End of playing career and managerial career 3 Career details and honours 4 External links

Nicol started his career with Ayr United in 1979 and spent just over 2 seasons with the Scottish side, racking up 70 league appearances, before Liverpool manager Bob Paisley decided to pay, what turned out to be, a bargain price of £300,000 to bring Nicol to Anfield on the 26 October 1981.

Two years in the reserves followed as Nicol learned 'The Liverpool Way,' although he flirted with the first team picture whilst gaining the necessary experience. He made his Reds debut on the 31 August 1982 in a 0-0 league draw with Birmingham City at St Andrews becoming a regular in 1983 under new boss Joe Fagan, he also scored his first goal for the club in '83 on the 22 October, it came in the league fixture with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, Nicol's 83rd minute strike was vital as it was the only goal of the game. He went on to win a League championship medal by the end of his first full season having not appeared enough times the previous season to qualify for a medal, however, he was not picked for the League Cup final victory over fierce Merseyside derby rivals Everton, the first ever all Merseyside final. He was selected for the European Cup final in Rome, Nicol played well and earned a winner's medal after a penalty shoot-out, despite undergoing personal trauma when he missed his own spot-kick in the shoot-out, fortunately for Steve A.S. Roma, playing in their home stadium, subsequently failed to score two of their penalty kicks and Liverpool won.

Nicol stayed in the team for pretty much the whole of the next decade, winning the League championship and FA Cup "double" in 1986 under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish, pipping Everton to the title by just 2 points and then beating them 3-1 in the first ever all Merseyside FA Cup final. He was also settling into an international career with Scotland which would ultimately yield 27 caps and a place in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Jock Stein gave Steve his international debut on the 12 September 1984 in a friendly with Yugoslavia, The Scots turned on the style for the 18, 512 Hampden Park crowd thumping the Eastern Europeans 6-1, helping Nicol to settle in somewhat were club mates Graeme Souness, who also captained the side, and Kenny Dalglish, both found the net.

A versatile player, he turned out most often at right back following the departure of Phil Neal in 1986, though he also featured at left back, in the centre of defence and as a midfield player, he even played up front on a couple of occasions. The No.4 shirt was always his, no matter which position he was asked to fill.

In 1988, Nicol was pretty much ever-present and actually began the season on a hot goalscoring streak, despite playing in a position not naturally conducive to attacking. This included a memorable hat-trick at Newcastle United and a phenomenal long-range header at Arsenal. Inevitably the goals dried up but Nicol's defensive qualities were much admired as Liverpool coasted to the League title but missed out on another "double" when Wimbledon surprisingly beat them 1-0 in the FA Cup final at Wembley. Nicol was the last Liverpool player to have a chance to equalise and force extra-time, seeing a diving header in injury time fly narrowly over the crossbar.

A year later, Nicol accompanied his team-mates to many of the funerals and memorial services of the 96 fans who died at the Hillsborough disaster and played his part as Liverpool won the FA Cup, again and fittingly, versus Everton, winning 3-2 aet, but lost the League title in a decider against Arsenal with virtually the last kick of the season. The campaign ended on a personal high for Nicol as he was named Footballer Of The Year by football writers. Like many others in the Liverpool squad, Hillsborough was the second tragedy Nicol had witnessed, 4 years earlier just before the 1985 European Cup final at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels football hooligans had charged a section of, mainly, Juventus supporters causing a retaining wall to collapse killing 39 people,

When Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 9-0 the following season to accumulate the club's biggest-ever League victory, Nicol was the only player to score twice, getting the first and last goals of the game in the 7th and 90th minutes. Liverpool regained the League title that season - their last to date - and, two years later, Nicol was in the team which, under Graeme Souness, won the FA Cup again in 1992 this time beating Sunderland 2-0.

Nicol stayed at Liverpool until 20 January 1995 when he took on the a player-coach role at Notts County, he stayed in the role for just 10 months playing 22 times. He then moved to Sheffield Wednesday in the November of '95, where he, ironically, made his debut against former derby rivals Everton at Goodison Park on the 25 November a game which ended in a 2-2 draw. However, probably Steve's best memory of his time at Hillsborough happened on the 7 December 1996 when his Wednesday side travelled to his old stomping ground of Anfield, the Sheffield side completely nullified the Liverpool attack, which contained the likes of Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and John Barnes, and came away with a surprise 1-0 victory with Nicol playing a major part in the Wednesday defence.

Nicol went on to make 49 league appearances before spending a spell on loan at West Bromwich Albion during the 1997/98 season where he played 9 times, he then had a short spell with Doncaster Rovers before heading to the U.S. to take a player-coach position with Boston Bulldogs of the A-League in 1999. In September of that year, he took over as interim player-coach with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer for the final two games of the season, winning both. He returned to Boston Bulldogs as player-coach for the 2000 and 2001 seasons before re-joining the Revs in 2002 as an assistant coach.

He took over as head coach of New England Revolution on an interim basis initially, then permanently after 21 games, leading the team to the MLS Cup that season, and was named MLS Coach of the Year in his first year. The team has advanced to the MLS Eastern Conference Finals in each of his years as coach, and returned to the MLS Cup in 2005 and 2006. Nicol's Revolution has the unique distinction of having not scored a goal in regulation time in any of their three final appearances (losing all three). One of the coaches who works under him is ex-Ipswich Town, Arsenal and England centre forward Paul Mariner.

Nicol lives in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, with his wife Eleanor, their son (Michael, who plays American football) and daughter (Katie). He is considered to be a possible successor to Bruce Arena as full-time coach of the United States Men's National Team.

Nicol still holds a place in the hearts of Liverpool supporters everywhere, this was shown in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop which was compiled by the official Liverpool Football Club web site. 110,000 supporters worldwide took part in the poll in which they had to supply their favourite 10 Reds of all time. Steve came in at a more than respectable 39th position.

* Ayr United F.C 1979-1981

• 70 league appearances, 7 league goals

* Liverpool F.C 1981-1995

• 468 appearances, 46 goals

• Division 1 (Level 1): 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990
• European Cup: 1984
• FA Cup: 1986, 1989, 1992
• Screen Sport Super Cup: 1986
• Charity Shield: 1986 (shared), 1989
• FWA Footballer of the Year 1989

Runner-up

• Charity Shield: 1984, 1985
• Intercontinental Cup: 1984
• European Super Cup: 1984, 1985
• Division 1 (Level 1): 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991
• European Cup: 1985
• League Cup 1987
• FA Cup: 1988

* Notts County F.C 1995

• 32 league appearances

* Sheffield Wednesday F.C 1995-1998

• 49 league appearances

* West Bromwich Albion F.C

• 9 appearances (on loan from Sheffield Wednesday)

* Boston Bulldogs 2000-2001

* New England Revolution 1999 & 2002-Present

• MLS Coach of the Year Award 2002
• MLS Cup Runner-up: 2002, 2005, 2006

• Oficial Liverpool FC profile
• New England Revolution profile
• LFCHistory.net profile
• Steve Nicol career stats at Soccerbase
• Liverpool seasonal record (part 1) 1981/82-1985/86 at sporting-heroes.net
• Liverpool seasonal record (part 2) 1986/87-1989/90 at sporting-heroes.net
• Liverpool seasonal record (part 3) 1990/91-1994/95 at sporting-heroes.net
• Sheffield Wednesday seasonal record 1995/96-1997/98 at sporting-heroes.net
• Scottish caps 1984-91 at sporting-heroes.net

Preceded by John Barnes

Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1989

Succeeded by John Barnes

Preceded by Walter Zenga	New England Revolution Head Coach (Interim) 1999	Succeeded by Fernando Clavijo
Preceded by Fernando Clavijo	New England Revolution Head Coach 2002-Present	Succeeded by Incumbent

New England Revolution - Current Squad
1 Reis | 2 Igwe | 3 Hernandez | 4 John | 5 Sims | 6 Heaps | 7 Cristman | 8 Franchino | 11 Noonan | 12 Warren | 13 Larentowicz | 14 Ralston | 15 Parkhurst | 16 Riley | 17 Flood | 18 Smith | 19 Lochhead | 20 Twellman | 21 Joseph | 22 Leonard | 23 Gonzalez | 24 Knighton | 25 Dorman | 27 Thompson | 28 Loftus | 30 Solle | 32 Oka | Coach: Nicol

	Scotland squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton | 2 Gough | 3 Malpas | 4 Souness | 5 McLeish | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Aitken | 9 Bannon | 10 Bett | 11 McStay | 12 Goram | 13 Nicol | 14 Narey | 15 Albiston | 16 McAvennie | 17 Archibald | 18 Sharp | 19 Nicholas | 20 Sturrock | 21 Cooper | 22 Rough | Coach: Ferguson